Vernon, VT & Charlestown, NH(August 2017)

A friend lent me a novel about one of the first settlers of Vermont. I decided to visit a couple of the related sites.

Above is a reconstruction of the Fort at No. 4. Unfortunately, the fort is also in a different location. It survives today as an open air museum. Colonial techniques are demonstrated here.

This fort is significant because the main character of the novel, Not Without Peril by Marguerite Allis, was captured here. Rather, from where the original version of this relocated reproduction was sited! I apologize for the obviously "stitched" photo. I couldn't fit the entire fort into one frame.

Number 4 refers to the fourth, buffer settlement established along the Connecticut River to protect the colonies of New Hampshire and Massachusetts from Indian attacks. Number 4 has since been renamed Charlestown, New Hampshire.

The house owned by Captain Phineas Stevens has been turned into the truck house or store. The bar of the tavern is pictured.

In a "lean-to", there was a descriptive exhibit of for birch-bark canoes.

There's also a bear skin in the "lean-to". These are few and far between now that hunting black bears is heavily regulated.

I think this bee hive was part of their learning-museum events. But, it's difficult to know because the exhibits were simply labeled, or left entirely unmarked.

This is a shot of Doctor John Hastings' house. The pamphlet says that he was an herbalist. I think most physicians used herbs before the advent of the current medical industry.

Here are the views from the watchtower. Getting up the 'tower required walking up some shallow stairs. I would have preferred the original ladder.

This is a closed gun port in a two-story garrison style section of the fort.

Here is the outside of that two-story. The top floor overlaps the bottom, which allows the occupants to stick guns out the previously-mentioned ports. This is, incidently, where the modern garrison-style of house was born.

Jemima Tute is the main character of the historical-fiction novel that compelled me to visit the fort. Unfortunately, she wasn't taken from the Fort at No. 4. Instead, she was taken from a, now, non-existent fort near Vernon, Vermont. There is also a historic marker in Vernon for this woman.

Near the marker is Hunt Cemetery where Mrs. Tute is buried. Her gravestone has quite the lengthy inscription. My photo doesn't capture it well, so here it is:

Mrs Jemima Tute,Successively relict of Messrs.Willam [sic] Phipps, Caleb Howe & Amos Tute.The two first were killed by the Indians:Phipps, July 5, A. D. 1743Howe, June 27, 1755.When Howe was killed she & her childrenThen seven in numberWere carried into captivity.The oldest daughter went to FranceAnd was married to a French gentlemanThe youngest was torn from her breastAnd perished with hungerBy the aid of some benevolent Gentle'nAnd her own personal heroismShe recovered the rest.She had two by her last husbandOutlived both him & themAnd died March 7th, 1805, aged 82Having passed thro' more vicissitudesAnd endured more hardshipsThan any of her cotemporaries [sic].No more can Savage Foes annoyNor aught her wide-spread fame destroy

This sums up her life well. The novel, while exciting, is not entire accurate.